U.S. patent application number 11/032775 was filed with the patent office on 2006-07-13 for system and methods for an overlay disk and cache using portable flash memory.
This patent application is currently assigned to Microsoft Corporation. Invention is credited to Muthukaruppan Annamalai, Andrew Birrell, Ulfar Erlingsson, Edward P. Wobber.
Application Number | 20060155931 11/032775 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36654607 |
Filed Date | 2006-07-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060155931 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Birrell; Andrew ; et
al. |
July 13, 2006 |
System and methods for an overlay disk and cache using portable
flash memory
Abstract
A system is provided for reading and writing sectors which may
be realized as either a disk device to the local operating system,
or as a virtual disk device to a virtual machine. A user's
computing environment is stored in the network in the form of a
disk image, which may be a virtual disk image, for example. The
virtual disk is realized on host computers through host-resident
virtual machine monitors such as MICROSOFT VIRTUAL PC.RTM..
Portable memory devices, such as flash devices, buffer virtual disk
writes and cache reads, greatly reducing the performance
degradation associated with remote disk access. The cache is mobile
so that it can be travel with the user. The flash device remembers
commonly used virtual disk content fingerprints so that the host
machine's local disk can be used to satisfy many common disk reads
when ubiquitous static content is involved. Standard, frequently
used software images might be distributed in advance to host
machines. Flash disk contents are trickled back into the networked
parent disk image in order to provide an automatic backup facility,
adding the benefit of ensuring that the flash drive doesn't
overflow.
Inventors: |
Birrell; Andrew; (Los Altos,
CA) ; Wobber; Edward P.; (Menlo Park, CA) ;
Annamalai; Muthukaruppan; (Seattle, WA) ; Erlingsson;
Ulfar; (San Francisco, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
WOODCOCK WASHBURN LLP (MICROSOFT CORPORATION)
ONE LIBERTY PLACE - 46TH FLOOR
PHILADELPHIA
PA
19103
US
|
Assignee: |
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond
WA
98052
|
Family ID: |
36654607 |
Appl. No.: |
11/032775 |
Filed: |
January 10, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
711/115 ;
711/103; 711/E12.019 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0656 20130101;
G06F 3/0664 20130101; G06F 9/45558 20130101; G06F 2212/222
20130101; G06F 2212/2146 20130101; G06F 12/0866 20130101; G06F
2009/45579 20130101; G06F 21/56 20130101; G06F 3/067 20130101; G06F
2212/2022 20130101; G06F 3/061 20130101; G06F 9/4451 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
711/115 ;
711/103 |
International
Class: |
G06F 12/00 20060101
G06F012/00 |
Claims
1. A method for managing data comprising: storing data as a virtual
disk image; and storing changes to a state of the virtual disk
image on a portable memory device.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the portable memory device
is a removable flash memory device.
3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the flash memory device is
of sufficient size to store a user's computing environment.
4. A method according to claim 2 wherein the data is a user's
computing environment.
5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
6. A method according to claim 2 wherein the changes to the state
of the virtual disk image stored on the flash memory device are
changes in addition to changes to the state of the virtual disk
image stored on another memory device.
7. A method according to claim 2 wherein the act of storing changes
comprises: buffering at least one write to the virtual disk image
using the flash memory device; and caching at least one read from
the virtual disk image using the flash memory device.
8. A method according to claim 7 wherein the read from the virtual
disk comprises: first inspecting a write-log for a sector number of
a sector needed and returning the sector from the flash memory
device if found; looking up, in a fingerprint array stored on the
flash memory device, a chunk-fingerprint corresponding to the
sector needed if the sector needed was not found inspecting the
write log; looking up a chunk corresponding to the chunk
fingerprint in a chunk cache and returning the sector from the
flash memory device if the chunk is present on the flash memory
device; looking up the chunk on a host system disk if the chunk was
not present on the flash memory device and then returning the
sector needed if present on the host system disk; fetching the
chunk from a remote disk if the chunk was not present on the host
system disk and returning the sector needed from the remote disk;
and caching the chunk on the flash memory device.
9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the fingerprint array is
implemented using multiple files with names that encode a position
in the array.
10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the write log is encoded
in multiple files with names that encode a relative age of log
entries.
11. A method according to claim 7, wherein the write to the virtual
disk image comprises appending a write to a write-log stored on the
flash memory device.
12. A method according to claim 7 wherein the write to the virtual
disk image using the flash memory device uses a block size that is
smaller than a chunk size used in the read from the virtual disk
image using the flash memory device.
13. A method according to claim 7 further comprising flushing at
least a portion of the buffered written data to a remote
differencing disk.
14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the flushing of the
written data occurs in write order.
15. A method according to claim 13 wherein the flushing occurs as a
background task.
16. A method according to claim 13 wherein the remote differencing
disk is a secondary remote differencing disk that is periodically
merged with a primary remote differencing disk.
17. A method according to claim 13 wherein the act of flushing the
written data comprises writing an entire chunk of sectors at once
to the remote differencing disk and copying the chunk directly into
a chunk cache on the flash memory device.
18. A method according to claim 13 further comprising: scanning a
write log on the flash memory device to detect repetitively written
sectors; and limiting re-flushing of the repetitively written
sectors.
19. A method according to claim 7 wherein the flash memory device
is removable.
20. A method according to claim 7 further comprising filling all
unused disk sectors of the virtual disk image with one particular
pattern, thereby speeding up communication and allowing compression
of various flash memory device data structures.
21. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable
instructions for performing the method of claim 1.
22. A modulated data signal carrying computer executable
instructions for performing the method of claim 1.
23. A computing device comprising at least one computer executable
module for performing the method of claim 1.
24. A system for storing data comprising: a host computer having a
virtual machine running thereon; a portable memory device operably
connected to the host computer, said memory device configured to
store changes to a state of a virtual disk image corresponding to
the virtual machine.
25. A system according to claim 24 wherein the portable memory
device is a removable flash memory device.
26. A system according to claim 25 wherein the flash memory device
is of sufficient size to store a user's computing environment.
27. A system according to claim 25 wherein the data is a user's
computing environment.
28. A system according to claim 27, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
29. A system according to claim 25 further comprising a remote
differencing disk in communication with the virtual machine wherein
the changes to the state of the virtual disk image, for said
changes the flash memory device is configured to store, are changes
in addition to changes to the state of the virtual disk image
stored on the remote differencing disk.
30. A system according to claim 29 further comprising a remote
corresponding static disk in communication with the remote
differencing disk.
31. A system according to claim 30 further comprising a second
static disk operably connected locally to the host computer and in
communication with the virtual machine, said second static disk
containing a substantial copy of the remote static disk
contents.
32. A system according to claim 25 wherein the flash memory device
comprises: a write log located in the flash memory device
structured to contain a sector number and a pointer to a sector
buffer; at least a cached portion of a fingerprint array located in
the flash memory device structured to contain a fingerprint for
each chunk on the virtual disk image; and a chunk cache located in
the flash memory device structured to contain a list of chunks
resident on the flash memory device.
33. A system according to claim 32 wherein the flash memory device
is a portable and removable device.
34. A system for managing data comprising: means for storing data
as a virtual disk image; and means for storing changes to a state
of the virtual disk image on a portable memory device in
communication with the means for storing data as a virtual disk
image.
35. A system according to claim 34 wherein the portable memory
device is a flash memory device.
36. A system according to claim 35 wherein the flash memory device
is removable.
37. A system according to claim 35 wherein the data is a user's
computing environment.
38. A system according to claim 37, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
39. A system according to claim 37 wherein the changes to the state
of the virtual disk image stored on the flash memory device are
changes in addition to changes to the state of the virtual disk
image stored on another memory device.
40. A system according to claim 35 wherein the means for storing
changes comprises: means for buffering at least one write to the
virtual disk image using the flash memory device; and means for
caching at least one read from the virtual disk image using the
flash memory device within the means for storing changes.
41. A system according to claim 40 further comprising: means, in
communication with the means for storing changes, for first
inspecting a write-log for a sector number of a sector needed and
returning the sector from the flash memory device if found; means,
in communication with the means for storing changes, for looking
up, in a fingerprint array stored on the flash memory device, a
chunk fingerprint corresponding to the sector needed if the sector
needed was not found inspecting the write log; means, in
communication with the means for storing changes, for looking up a
chunk corresponding to the chunk fingerprint in a chunk cache and
returning the sector from the flash memory device if the chunk is
present on the flash memory device; means, in communication with
the means for storing changes, for looking up the chunk on a host
system disk if the chunk was not present on the flash memory device
and then returning the sector needed if present on the host system
disk; means, in communication with the means for storing changes,
for fetching the chunk from a remote disk if the chunk was not
present on the host system disk and returning the sector needed
from the remote disk; and means, in communication with the means
for storing changes, for caching the chunk on the flash memory
device.
42. A system according to claim 40, further comprising means for
appending a write to a write-log stored on the flash memory device,
said means for appending being in communication with the means for
storing changes.
43. A system according to claim 40 further comprising means for
flushing at least a portion of the buffered written data to a
remote differencing disk, said means for flushing in communication
with the means for storing changes.
44. A computing device interface comprising: receiving means for
receiving a portable memory device into the interface; and
transmitting means adapted for transmitting data stored as a
virtual disk image to the portable memory device via the receiving
means.
45. A computing device according to claim 44 wherein the data
transmitted comprises changes to a state of the virtual disk
image.
46. A computing device interface according to claim 45 wherein the
changes to the state of the virtual disk image are changes in
addition to changes to the state of the virtual disk image stored
on another memory device.
47. A computing device interface according to claim 44 wherein the
transmitting means comprises: means for transmitting data to: a
write log located in the portable memory device structured to
contain a sector number and a pointer to a sector buffer; a
fingerprint array located in the portable memory device structured
to contain a fingerprint for each chunk on the virtual disk image;
and a chunk cache located in the portable memory device structured
to contain a list of chunks resident on the portable memory
device.
48. A computing device interface according to claim 44 wherein the
interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface.
49. A method for retrieving data comprising: inserting a portable
memory device into a computing device having a virtual machine
monitor running on said computing device; retrieving a memory
state, via the portable memory device, from a previously stored
state; utilizing the retrieved memory state to create a virtual
disk image; and providing a computing environment to a user based
on the utilization of the retrieved memory state.
50. A method according to claim 49 further comprising
authenticating a user after the user inserts the portable memory
device.
51. A method according to claim 49, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
52. A method according to claim 49 wherein the retrieved memory
state comprises changes to the state of the virtual disk image.
53. A method according to claim 52 wherein the changes to the state
of the virtual disk image are changes in addition to changes to the
state of the virtual disk image stored on a remote memory
device.
54. A method according to claim 49 wherein the act of utilizing the
retrieved memory state to create a virtual disk image comprises:
buffering at least one write to the virtual disk image using the
portable memory device; and caching at least one read from the
virtual disk image using the portable memory device.
55. A method according to claim 54 wherein the read from the
virtual disk comprises: first inspecting a write-log for a sector
number of a sector needed and returning the sector from the
portable memory device if found; looking up, in a fingerprint array
stored on the portable memory device, a chunk fingerprint
corresponding to the sector needed if the sector needed was not
found inspecting the write log; looking up a chunk corresponding to
the chunk fingerprint in a chunk cache and returning the sector
from the portable memory device if the chunk is present on the
portable memory device; looking up the chunk on a host system disk
if the chunk was not present on the portable memory device and then
returning the sector needed if present on the host system disk;
fetching the chunk from a remote disk if the chunk was not present
on the host system disk and returning the sector needed from the
remote disk; and caching the chunk on the portable memory
device.
56. A method according to claim 55 wherein the fingerprint array is
implemented using multiple files with names that encode a position
in the array.
57. A method according to claim 55 wherein the write log is encoded
in multiple files with names that encode a relative age of log
entries.
58. A method according to claim 54, wherein the write to the
virtual disk image comprises appending a write to a write-log
stored on the portable memory device.
59. A method according to claim 54 wherein the write to the virtual
disk image using the portable memory device uses a block size that
is smaller than a chunk size used in the read from the virtual disk
image using the portable memory device.
60. A method according to claim 54 further comprising flushing at
least a portion of the buffered written data to a remote
differencing disk.
61. A method for managing data comprising caching information from
data stored on a networked disk to a portable memory device.
62. The method of claim 61 further comprising buffering a write to
the networked disk on the portable memory device.
63. The method of claim 62 further comprising caching a read from
the networked disk to the portable memory device.
64. The method of claim 61 further comprising: removing the
portable memory device from a first computer with; connecting the
portable memory device to a second computer, remote from the first
computer, with said second computer the networked drive is in
communication; and using the information stored on the portable
memory device while said portable device was connected to the first
computer in caching of the networked drive.
65. A method according to claim 61 wherein the combination of data
stored on the networked disk and that cached on the portable device
comprises a user's computing environment.
66. A method according to claim 65, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
67. A method according to claim 61 further comprising performing a
read from the networked disk wherein the read comprises: first
inspecting a write-log for a sector number of a sector needed and
returning the sector from the portable memory device if found;
looking up, in a fingerprint array stored on the portable memory
device, a chunk fingerprint corresponding to the sector needed if
the sector needed was not found inspecting the write log; looking
up a chunk corresponding to the chunk fingerprint in a chunk cache
and returning the sector from the portable memory device if the
chunk is present on the portable memory device; looking up the
chunk on a host system disk if the chunk was not present on the
portable memory device and then returning the sector needed if
present on the host system disk; fetching the chunk from a remote
disk if the chunk was not present on the host system disk and
returning the sector needed from the remote disk; and caching the
chunk on the portable memory device.
68. A method for reading and writing disk sectors comprising: first
inspecting a write-log for a sector number of a sector needed and
returning the sector from a portable memory device if found;
looking up, in a fingerprint array stored on the portable memory
device, a chunk fingerprint corresponding to the sector needed if
the sector needed was not found inspecting the write log; looking
up a chunk corresponding to the chunk fingerprint in a chunk cache
and returning the sector from the portable memory device if the
chunk is present on the portable memory device; looking up the
chunk on a host system disk if the chunk was not present on the
portable memory device and then returning the sector needed if
present on the host system disk; fetching the chunk from a remote
disk if the chunk was not present on the host system disk and
returning the sector needed from the remote disk; and caching the
chunk on the portable memory device.
69. A system for reading and writing disk sectors comprising a
subsystem in communication with a local operating system of a
computer wherein the subsystem comprises: means for first
inspecting a write-log for a sector number of a sector needed and
returning the sector from a portable memory device if found; means
for means for looking up, in a fingerprint array stored on the
portable memory device, a chunk fingerprint corresponding to the
sector needed if the sector needed was not found inspecting the
write log; means for looking up a chunk corresponding to the chunk
fingerprint in a chunk cache and returning the sector from the
portable memory device if the chunk is present on the portable
memory device; means for looking up the chunk on a host system disk
if the chunk was not present on the portable memory device and then
returning the sector needed if present on the host system disk;
means for fetching the chunk from a remote disk if the chunk was
not present on the host system disk and returning the sector needed
from the remote disk; and means for caching the chunk on the
portable memory device.
70. A system for storing data comprising: a host computer in
communication with a networked disk; a portable memory device
operably connected to the host computer, said memory device
configured to store changes to a state of a disk image
corresponding to the networked disk.
71. A system according to claim 70 wherein the portable memory
device is a removable portable memory device.
72. A system according to claim 71 wherein the data is a user's
computing environment.
73. A system according to claim 72, wherein the user's computing
environment comprises at least a computer operating system.
74. A system according to claim 70 further comprising a remote
differencing disk in communication with the host computer wherein
the changes to the state of the disk image, for said changes the
portable memory device is configured to store, are changes in
addition to changes to the state of the disk image stored on the
remote differencing disk.
75. A system according to claim 74 further comprising a remote
corresponding static disk in communication with the remote
differencing disk.
76. A system according to claim 75 further comprising a second
static disk operably connected locally to the host computer and in
communication with the networked disk, said second static disk
containing a substantial copy of the remote static disk
contents.
77. A system according to claim 70 wherein the portable memory
device comprises: a write log located in the portable memory device
structured to contain a sector number and a pointer to a sector
buffer; at least a cached portion of a fingerprint array located in
the portable memory device structured to contain a fingerprint for
each chunk on the virtual disk image; and a chunk cache located in
the portable memory device structured to contain a list of chunks
resident on the portable memory device.
78. A system according to claim 77 wherein the portable memory
device is a portable and removable device.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to mobile computing
environments and specifically to using a portable memory device to
realize a portable cache, exploit local content and provide a
differencing drive, (i.e., an overlay drive). The terms
differencing drive and overlay drive may be used interchangeably in
the present patent application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Mobility of large amounts of data and applications is
becoming increasingly important as the size of typical applications
and associated files within a user's computing environment is ever
increasing. A user's computing environment is defined herein as
data and/or programs associated with a particular user that allow
the user to interact with a computer in a particular fashion. An
example of this may include a user's operating system, software
applications and data stored on a disk. It has become commonplace
for mobile computer users to carry laptops to bring their computing
environments with them. In many cases, this arrangement is less
than optimal. Laptops are heavy, bulky, fragile, and subject to
theft. Moreover, the user cannot easily choose a computer with
resources appropriate to the task at hand. Instead, a single laptop
must suffice for everything. Roaming profiles as they exist in the
MICROSOFT WINDOWS.RTM. operating system today do not solve this
problem. The performance of the required remote file access is
often insufficient and in practice only a fraction of the user's
computing environment is actually ported from desktop to desktop.
For example, application settings might move but not applications
or the "My Documents" folder.
[0003] Remote desktop (terminal server) programs are not a full
solution either, since desktop-remoting is not always workable over
high-latency lines and the protocols involved are often blocked by
firewalls. Moreover, in many environments users maintain personal
control over their desktops which makes such machines an unreliable
target for remote access.
[0004] The advent of cheap, portable, particularly flash-based
storage devices, offers the possibility of carrying a computing
environment on one's keychain or in a mobile phone. Familiar flash
devices can be used for this purpose as they easily plug-in to
desktop hardware that is becoming both cheap and ubiquitous.
[0005] However, it doesn't work well to treat the flash device as a
desktop primary disk. Booting from flash devices is generally not
supported. It is not desirable that the flash device dictate the
configuration of the host computer since the flash device will
often be used in concert with different host hardware
configurations. Flash devices can be easily lost or damaged, and
therefore a strong backup strategy is needed. Furthermore, rotating
disk hardware will outpace solid-state hardware in bytes per unit
cost for some time to come. Therefore, it is arguable whether
limited space flash devices will ever have acceptable capacity
compared to desktop or laptop disks.
[0006] In view of the above problems, it would be beneficial to
utilize portable memory devices to enable users to carry with them
their computing environment without having to store the entire
contents of the computing environment on the portable memory
device. It would be yet be a further advantage to have an automatic
backup facility in connection with using the portable memory
device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] In view of the foregoing, the present invention provides a
system and method for managing data that provides portable and
stable storage and wherein the system also acts as a working subset
of a potentially larger networked disk. The method comprises
storing data as a disk image and storing changes to a state of the
disk image on a portable memory device. The portable memory device
is connected externally to a computing device, is removable by a
user and stores data in a non-volatile fashion. A flash memory
device is an example of a portable memory device. A flash memory
device is defined as a special type of electrically erasable
programmable read-only memory device (EEPROM) that can be erased
and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time.
Particularly, the data may, for example, be a user's computing
environment. Furthermore, the changes to the state of the disk
image stored on the portable memory device may be changes in
addition to changes to the state of the disk image stored on
another memory device.
[0008] Particularly, the act of storing changes comprises buffering
at least one write to the disk image using the portable memory
device and caching at least one read from the disk image using the
portable memory device. Writes to the portable memory device are
the only actual changes in the disk image state. The portable
memory-based read cache is a performance enhancement.
[0009] The invention may also be characterized as a system
component for reading and writing sectors. The component may be
realized as either a disk device to the local operating system, or
as a virtual disk device to a virtual machine. For example, in one
embodiment a system is provided for storing data comprising a host
computer having a virtual machine running thereon and a portable
memory device operably connected to the host computer. The memory
device is configured to store changes to a state of a virtual disk
image corresponding to the virtual machine. The memory device may
be, for example, a removable flash memory device. The system may
comprise further a remote differencing disk in communication with
the virtual machine. The changes to the state of the virtual disk
image that may be stored on a portable memory device may be changes
in addition to changes to the state of the virtual disk image
stored on the remote differencing disk.
[0010] Other features of the present invention are described
below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The system and methods for a virtual overlay disk and cache
using portable memory device are further described with reference
to the accompanying drawings in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram representing an exemplary suitable
computing system environment in which the present invention may be
implemented;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram representing an exemplary network
environment in which the present invention may be implemented;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a system level view
of a host machine and associated network server according to the
present invention;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating various data structures
present on a memory disk according to the present invention;
[0016] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating various data structures
that are read into memory of a host machine according to the
present invention; and
[0017] FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the sector reading
process according to the present invention.
[0018] FIG. 7 is a process flow diagram illustrating a process of
restoring a user's computing environment on a host computer
according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS
Overview
[0019] The present invention provides a method and system utilizing
portable memory devices, to buffer virtual disk writes and cache
reads, greatly reducing the performance degradation associated with
remote disk access. The cache on the portable device is mobile so
that it can travel with the user. A portable memory device is also
used to remember commonly used disk content fingerprints so that
the host machine's local disk can be used to satisfy many common
disk reads when ubiquitous static content is involved.
[0020] First, exemplary computing and network environments will be
described, followed by a description of the system components and
then by a description of the system operation.
Exemplary Computer and Network Environments
[0021] FIG. 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide
a brief general description of a suitable computing environment in
which the invention may be implemented. Although not required, the
invention will be described in the general context of
computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being
executed by one or more computers, such as client workstations,
servers or other devices. Generally, program modules include
routines, programs, objects, components, data structures and the
like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract
data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may
be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the
invention may be practiced with other computer system
configurations. Other well known computing systems, environments,
and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the
invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers
(PCs), server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,
multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based systems, programmable
consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe
computers, gaming platforms and the like. The invention may also be
practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are
performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a
communications network or other data transmission medium. In a
distributed computing environment, program modules may be located
in both local and remote computer storage media including memory
storage devices.
[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system
environment 100 in which the invention may be implemented. The
computing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitable
computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation
as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. For
example, mobile computing environments may be useful in a wide
range of platforms. Neither should the computing environment 100 be
interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any
one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary
operating environment 100.
[0023] With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for
implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing
device in the form of a computer 110. Components of computer 110
may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 120, a
system memory 130; and a system bus 121 that couples various system
components including the system memory to the processing unit 120.
The system bus 121 may be any of several types of bus structures
including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and
a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of
example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry
Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards
Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI) bus (also known as Mezzanine bus).
[0024] Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer
readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media
that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes volatile and
nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of
example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise
computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage
media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and
non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for
storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data
structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media
includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or
other memory technology, CDROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or
other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,
magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any
other medium which can be used to store the desired information and
which can accessed by computer 110.
[0025] Communication media typically embodies computer readable
instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a
modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport
mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term
"modulated data signal" means a signal that has one or more of its
characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode
information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,
communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or
direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,
infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above
should also be included within the scope of computer readable
media.
[0026] The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the
form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory
(ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output
system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to
transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as
during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically
contains data and/or program modules that are immediately
accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit
120. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates
operating system 134, application programs 135, other program
modules 136, and program data 137.
[0027] The computer 110 may also include other
removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage
media. By way of example only, FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disk drive
141 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile
magnetic media, a universal serial bus (USB) interface 151 that
reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile flash memory disk
152, and an optical disk drive 155 that reads from or writes to a
removable, nonvolatile optical disk 156, such as a CD ROM or other
optical media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile
computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating
environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape
cassettes, floppy disks, digital versatile disks, digital video
tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, external hard disk drives,
and the like. The hard disk drive 141 is typically connected to the
system bus 121 through an non-removable memory interface such as
interface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and optical disk drive
155 are typically connected to the system bus 121 by a removable
memory interface, such as interface 150.
[0028] The drives and their associated computer storage media
discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules
and other data for the computer 110. In FIG. 1, for example, hard
disk drive 141 is illustrated as storing operating system 144,
application programs 145, other program modules 146, and program
data 147. Note that these components can either be the same as or
different from operating system 134, application programs 135,
other program modules 136, and program data 137. Operating system
144, application programs 145, other program modules 146, and
program data 147 are given different numbers here to illustrate
that, at a minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter
commands and information into the computer 110 through input
devices such as a keyboard 162 and pointing device 161, commonly
referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices
(not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite
dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often
connected to the processing unit 120 through a user input interface
160 that is coupled to the system bus 121, but may be connected by
other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game
port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 191 or other type
of display device is also connected to the system bus 121 via an
interface, such as a video interface 190. In addition to the
monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices
such as speakers 197 and printer 196, which may be connected
through an output peripheral interface 195.
[0029] The computer 110 may operate in a networked environment
using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as
a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal
computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other
common network node, and typically includes many or all of the
elements described above relative to the computer 110, although
only a memory storage device 181 has been illustrated in FIG. 1.
The logical connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area
network (LAN) 171 and a wide area network (WAN) 173, but may also
include other networks. Such networking environments are
commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks,
intranets and the Internet.
[0030] When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110
is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter
170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 110
typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing
communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. The modem
172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the
system bus 121 via the user input interface 160, or other
appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules
depicted relative to the computer 110, or portions thereof, may be
stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and
not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates remote application programs 185
as residing on memory device 181. It will be appreciated that the
network connections shown are exemplary and other means of
establishing a communications link between the computers may be
used.
[0031] As mentioned, a computer, such as described above, can be
deployed as part of a computer network. Further, the present
invention pertains to any computer system having any number of
memory or storage units, and any number of applications and
processes occurring across any number of storage units or volumes.
Thus, the present invention may apply to both server computers and
client computers deployed in a network environment, having remote
or local storage. FIG. 2 thus illustrates an exemplary network
environment, with a server in communication with client computers
via a network, in which the present invention may be employed. As
shown, a number of servers 10a, 10b, etc., are interconnected via a
communications network 14 (which may be a LAN, WAN, intranet or the
Internet) with a number of client computers 110a, 110b, 110c, etc.
In a network environment in which the communications network 14 is
the Internet, for example, servers 10 can be Web servers with which
the clients 110a, 110b, etc. communicate via any of a number of
known protocols such as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The
invention may also leverage peer to peer networking techniques.
Each client computer 110 and server computer 10 may be equipped
with various application program modules 135, other program modules
136 and program data 137, and with connections or access to various
types of storage elements or objects, across which files may be
stored or to which portion(s) of files may be downloaded or
migrated. Each client computer 110 and server computer 10 may also
be connected to additional storage elements 20, such as a database.
Thus, the present invention can be utilized in a computer network
environment having client computers for accessing and interacting
with a network and server computers 10a, 10b, etc. for interacting
with client computers.
[0032] System Components
[0033] Referring to FIG. 3, shown is a block diagram illustrating a
system level view of a host machine and associated network server
according to the present invention. Shown is a host machine 305
where a virtual machine monitor 315, such as MICROSOFT VIRTUAL
PC.RTM. (VPC), for example, or other virtual machine monitors (VMM)
may run. Also, VPC is an example of a virtual machine monitor,
that, for example, can host multiple virtual machines (e.g.,
running MICROSOFT WINDOWS.RTM. as a guest operating system). A VMM
is a layer of software that sits directly on the raw hardware and
exports a virtual machine abstraction that imitates the real
machine well enough that software developed for the real machine
also runs in the virtual machine. A portable memory device, such as
a flash device 310 is connected to the host machine 305. A wide
range of acceptable portable memory devices is available and
suitable, but high-speed flash based USB-disks such as the SANDISK
ULTRA II.RTM. with a USB adapter, for example, are particularly
suitable. A preferable minimum memory size for the flash device is
1 GByte, although other memory sizes may be adequate. The virtual
machine 315, which, for example, may be running under the host
machine's 305 VMM application has an underlying virtual disk
representation 320 in operable communication with the flash disk
(FD) 310 and a static disk 335 (S) and S' 345.
[0034] The user's 325 computing environment runs as a guest
operating system inside the host's 305 VMM application 315. The
user's 325 virtual disk 320 is an overlay disk wherein the contents
of the disk are stored in a network server running a remote virtual
disk service 330. It consists of a static image (S) 335, containing
the operating system and a set of standard applications, for
example, plus a differencing drive (D) 340 that holds changes to
that state. This configuration is possible utilizing systems like
VPC, for example. However, the interface of the overlay disk
described herein offers to the virtual machine an interface that is
very similar to the interface that an analogous system device might
provide to the operating system. The main primitives are simply
reads and writes of disk sectors. It is thus an alternative to
implement a disk device driver that offers much the same interface
and functionality using the data structures described herein.
Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to those
embodiments that are described in the context of a virtual
machine.
[0035] The host machine 305 may contain a copy of the static image
S 335 (called S' 345) so that some disk reads may be satisfied
locally from S' 345. There is no requirement that S 335 exactly
equal S' 345, but performance will improve with the similarity of S
335 and S' 345. Additional static images (S'', . . . ) containing
software upgrades or other components loaded into the user's 325
disk image can be made available locally for the same purpose of
improving performance.
[0036] The flash disk (FD) 310 acts as an additional differencing
drive on top of the remote disk (D) 340. Described below is the
implementation of that virtual disk 310. The implementation helps
facilitate disk sector write and read operations using flash memory
310. An aggregate virtual disk can be thought of as holding
S+D+FD.
[0037] Referring next to FIG. 4, shown is a diagram illustrating
various data structures present on a memory disk according to the
present invention. The flash disk 310 will hold 3 permanent data
structures in addition to the virtual machine memory image (which
is used by VPC to store the user's runtime memory state when the
virtual machine is inactive). These data structures are a write log
405, a fingerprint (FP) array 415 and a chunk cache list 425.
[0038] A write-log 405 has one entry for each sector written. Each
entry contains a sector number and a pointer to a sector buffer
410. The write-log 405 may be encoded in multiple files with names
that encode the relative age the log entries. One might therefore
be able to encode log position with file names. However, the flash
device 310 may also be accessed through a memory interface (e.g. a
write log entry at location ZZZ rather than a write log entry into
file XXX at offset YYY). Since the write-log can traverse the flash
disk 310, it is possible to avoid writing the same flash sector
every time the same disk sector is written. This will help
eliminate flash disk wear-leveling problems.
[0039] Referring next to FIG. 5, shown is a diagram illustrating
various data structures that are read into memory of a host machine
according to the present invention. The log portion of the
write-log 405 of FIG. 4 (but not the sector data) is read into
memory of the host machine 305 at session startup forming a
write-log hash table 505 indexed by sector number, as shown in FIG.
5. Each entry of the write-log hash table 505 contains a sector
number and a pointer to the sector data 410 on the flash disk 310.
These stable and in-memory data structures implement the
differencing drive FD 310. Disk sectors are 512 bytes long, for
example.
[0040] The FP array 415 is an array containing, for example, a
128-bit FP for each 16-KB chunk on the aggregate virtual disk.
However, the fingerprint algorithm, size of fingerprint, and chunk
size need not be exactly as described herein, as other sizes and
algorithms may also be suitable to obtain the same result. Also, it
is not required that the entire FP array 415 fit onto the flash
memory device 310. The FP array 415 itself could be fetched from
the remote disk 340 in smaller chunks and cached. A crypto-hash
algorithm such as MD5 is used for a fingerprint function, although
other suitable crypto-hash routines may be used. The MD5 algorithm
takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces as output
a 128-bit "fingerprint" or "message digest" of the input. It is
conjectured that it is computationally infeasible to produce two
messages having the same message digest, or to produce any message
having a given pre-specified target message digest. Optimally, the
local static disk S' 345 and the remote static S 335 and
differencing drive D 340 can be efficiently indexed by FP. An
in-memory data structure describing each disk would enable
this.
[0041] The FP array 415 may be implemented using multiple files
with names that encode a position in the array. This would make
extension of the array easier. However, the FP array might also be
accessed through a memory interface.
[0042] The chunk cache list 425 is a list of 16-KB chunks currently
resident on the flash disk 310. Each entry in the chunk cache list
425 contains a sector index and a pointer to a chunk buffer 430.
The list portion of this data structure (but not the chunk data) is
read into memory of the host machine 305 at startup forming a hash
table, for example, indexed by FP, which is shown in FIG. 5 as the
fingerprint to chunk map 515 having pointers to the chunk data 430
on the flash device 310 and the age of each chunk as determined by
when each chunk was read. The fingerprint of any given disk chunk
is available from the FP array 415 of FIG. 4.
[0043] The write-back log 405 block size is small in order to make
writes back to the network as efficient as possible, and also
because the virtual disk implementation has little control over the
block size for writes. On the other hand, chunks (e.g. the read
cache) are large in order to minimize the amount of memory on the
flash disk 310 needed to store (or cache) the fingerprints of the
entire virtual disk. Moreover, reading data in larger chunks will
likely help facilitate disk read-ahead policies in many situations.
Also, if the log position in the write-back log 405 is being
encoded with file names, one could rename the file to indicate that
the log had been written-back.
System Operation
[0044] Referring next to FIG. 6, shown is a flow chart illustrating
the process for reading a disk sector according to the present
invention. In order to help understand and implement the processes
described herein, described next is an explanation and general
operation of a typical cache system. A cache memory system relies
on the fact that a small memory can be made faster than a large
one. If the small memory can be made to contain the most frequently
used data items or instructions, then the average memory access
time for the system will be closer to that of the faster memory
than the slower one. The usual method of ensuring that the most
frequently used items reside in the cache is for the cache to
contain the most recently used items. In a direct mapped cache the
least significant address bits (LSB) within the cache are matched
to those of the corresponding word in main memory.
[0045] In the present embodiment, to read a disk sector, the
write-log hash table 505 is first inspected. If the sector is
present 610 on the flash disk 310, it is returned 615. If the
sector is not present on the flash disk 310, then the chunk FP
corresponding to the needed sector is looked up 620 on the chunk
number to fingerprint map 415. Then the chunk is looked up 625 in
the chunk cache 515. If the chunk is present 630 on the flash disk
310, the needed sector is returned 635 from there. If the chunk is
not present on the flash disk 310, the chunk is looked up on the
host machine 305 disks 345 (S', S'', . . . ) and the needed sector
returned 650, if found 645 on the host machine 305 disks 345 (S',
S'', . . . ) If the chunk is not present on the host machine 305
disks 345 (S', S'', . . . ), then the chunk is fetched 655 from the
remote disk D 340 or S 345. Subsequently, the chunk is cached 656
on-flash 425 and noted 515 and the needed sector returned 660. Note
that the cached or fetched chunk need not reflect the most recent
state for all sectors in the chunk. This is because the write log
405 is an overlay on differencing disk D 340. The chunk cache list
425 represents a cache of S 345+D 340, therefore the most recent
sector will always be returned as long as the write log 405 is
consulted before the chunk cache list 425, even if such sectors
have not been written back to D 340. Writes are performed as simple
appends to the write log 405. The chunk number to fingerprint map
415 and chunk cache list 425 may, for example, be read into memory
only at startup, and then flushed back later to the flash device
310. Alternatively, these structures may be updated routinely
during a session.
[0046] Backup and write-log overflow prevention is accomplished by
trickling 435 the write-log 405 data back to the remote
differencing disk D 340 in background. Because the write-log 405 is
flushed in write order, the remote virtual disk stored (S 345+D
340) will always be in a recoverable state. The flash-based
write-log 405 can maintain sectors after they have been written
back, however if a sector is flushed altogether from the table 405,
then the chunk FP in the chunk number to fingerprint map 415 must
be recomputed. This might involve fetching the entire chunk in
order to compute the fingerprint.
[0047] Write-backs to the remote disk D 340 may be stored in a
secondary remote differencing disk D'. D' would then be
periodically and atomically merged into D. This would allow the
system to guarantee stronger properties about 345 S+D 340, such as
the remote copy of the virtual disk always being in some known good
state. Also, an entire chunk of sectors can be written back at once
and copied directly into the chunk cache 425. In addition, the
write-log 405 may be scanned in order to avoid re-flushing
repetitively written sectors.
[0048] The virtual machine 315 memory state can be flushed
periodically to the flash disk 310 during a user session. The flash
disk 310 should hold this memory state in order to promote
portability of the user's entire state. Also, if the memory state
can be associated with a particular write-log position, then the
contents of the memory state plus the write-log 405 up to that
point would represent a complete system checkpoint. This would
allow a user 325 to rollback from subsequent failure to a known
good point in the past.
[0049] Also, the user's operating system can be "enlightened", that
is made aware of the fact that it is running inside a virtual
machine. If the OS is aware that its disk is a virtual overlay
disk, it can ensure that all unused disk sectors and/or memory
regions are filled with one particular pattern (e.g., zero filled)
to speed up communication and allow compression of the various
flash-disk 310 data structures 405 415 425. Additionally, the
user's operating system can be enlightened so as to avoid writing
temporary files to the virtual disk. For example, temporary files
can be written to a RAM disk which would be deleted prior to the
end of a user session. This would reduce the size of the write log
which must be stored on flash.
[0050] In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a technique
for software virus prevention is to scramble code segments to
produce a different layout (but equivalent function) on each
different machine. The virtual disk 320 design offers a mechanism
to map from logical content hash to physical disk block. Given a
means to convert between machine-specific code layout and a
canonical form, the content mapping scheme disclosed herein may be
used to retrieve an equivalent copy of a code block from local
media that can be canonicalized and re-scrambled for use on the
virtual machine 315.
[0051] An equivalent process for security updates is also an aspect
of the present invention. Since one can not assume that all host
machines 305 will hold all versions of all security updates for all
virtual disks 320, it would instead be desirable to be able to
compute the code necessary to implement a correctly patched
function from what exists on the local machine 305, since that will
be more efficient than fetching it from the user's remote disk D
340. This is accomplished by mapping from the hash of a
canonicalized function to the version of that function available
from the local S' 345, presuming that in many cases, the up-to-date
correct version of the function for the user's virtual disk 320 can
be deterministically computed from the canonical version. This is
likely because security patches can be represented very efficiently
in comparison to the size of the modules being patched.
[0052] Referring next to FIG. 7, shown is a process flow diagram
illustrating a process of restoring a user's computing environment
on a host computer according to the present invention. First, a
users inserts a flash memory device into a computer running a VMM
705. Then the user is authenticated 710 in some fashion such as in
a logon process, for example, to verify the user is authorized to
access the particular desired computing environment to be restored.
Next, a memory state is retrieved 715 that is associated with a
previously saved computing environment via the flash memory device
using the methods described above, for example, in creating and
maintaining a virtual disk image associated with the computing
environment to be restored. The particular computing environment
associated with the virtual disk image is then provided to the user
720 on the host computing device, such as by displaying the
environment on the computing device with which the user may
interact.
[0053] The various techniques described herein may be implemented
with hardware or software or, where appropriate, with a combination
of both. Thus, the methods and apparatus of the present invention,
or certain aspects or portions thereof, may take the form of
program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media, such
as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other
machine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the program code is
loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the
machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. In the
case of program code execution on programmable computers, the
computer will generally include a processor, a storage medium
readable by the processor (including volatile and non-volatile
memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at
least one output device. One or more programs are preferably
implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented
programming language to communicate with a computer system.
However, the program(s) can be implemented in assembly or machine
language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled
or interpreted language, and combined with hardware
implementations.
[0054] The methods and apparatus of the present invention may also
be embodied in the form of program code that is transmitted over
some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or
cabling, through fiber optics, or via any other form of
transmission, wherein, when the program code is received and loaded
into and executed by a machine, such as an EPROM, a gate array, a
programmable logic device (PLD), a client computer, a video
recorder or the like, the machine becomes an apparatus for
practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose
processor, the program code combines with the processor to provide
a unique apparatus that operates to perform the indexing
functionality of the present invention. For example, the storage
techniques used in connection with the present invention may
invariably be a combination of hardware and software.
[0055] While the present invention has been described in connection
with the preferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be
understood that other similar embodiments may be used or
modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiment
for performing the same function of the present invention without
deviating therefrom. For example, while exemplary embodiments of
the invention are described in the context storing data and running
a virtual machine in a PC with a general operating system, one
skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is not
limited to the PC, and that running a virtual machine and
implementing a differencing disk may apply to any computing device,
such as a gaming console, handheld computer, portable computer,
etc., whether wired or wireless, and may be applied to any number
of such computing devices connected via a communications network,
and interacting across the network. Furthermore, it should be
emphasized that a variety of computer platforms, including handheld
device operating systems and other application specific operating
systems are contemplated, especially as the number of wireless
networked devices continues to proliferate. Therefore, the present
invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but
rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the
appended claims.
* * * * *